Beautiful Baby Girl

The baby girl took 9 months in the making so don't expect this to be a short post :) I am still in the hospital waiting to be discharged with my beautiful brand new baby girl so I thought might as well get started writing down the events of one of the most memorable days of my life.

November 14, 2008, started at about 3:30AM for me. See previous post :) By 9:00AM I had daddy, Sissy and both grandmas on alert. If after a shower and resting, I still wasn't feeling better I wanted to go to the hospital just to make sure everything was OK. Daddy was at work and it was a wet, busy morning for him so I didn't want to drag him away for nothing. Sissy was at work and I didn't want her to waste what ever leave time she had - ha, ha!! Grandma and CoCo were going to get ready slowly just waiting for me to tell them what was going on. By 10:30, I had decided I wanted to go to the hospital. Things were not really happening fast but they were not slowing down either. But I soooo didn't want to bother anyone until I knew for sure what was going on. CoCo came over. Daddy came home, changed clothes, went potty and did a few other things around the house. I blew my hair dry, folded laundry, figured out who needed to be where and when and I would say by 11 we were on our way to the hospital. All the while Nature Girl kept saying "Mommy I really don't know what is going on." She knew we might be having a baby but she wasn't able to keep up with all my plans as to who was going where etc. :) Up until then I was having painful contractions but not real regular. By the time we got in the truck and were headed to the gas station, 5 minutes away, I had had two pretty painful contractions. A few minutes up the road I had had another one. I was starting to get a little concerned. Have you ever rode 40 weeks pregnant in a lifted up F150 4x4?? Holy Cow is all I can say. Anyway, by the time I was seated in the waiting room at the Women's Pavilion, the contractions started to go away. Go figure. I was starting to feel bad because I had created such a fuss for nothing. A few minutes later they called my name and I went back to triage. They determined I was having real contractions and that I had dilated to 5 cm. So I said "Am I staying?" She asked me "Do you want to stay?" And I said "I guess." So we called our helpers: Grandma, CoCo, Sissy, and Shaunna. We let them know that I was on my way to adding to our already wonderful family!

I was able to lay there in triage and joke around and when they asked me if I wanted an epideral I said "Only as a backup." I really wanted to have a natural birth. After being in triage for about 45 minutes, my water broke and they were working on getting me to a L&D room. I wasn't really thinking about it but my contractions started getting a little bit harder and a little bit more painful. We decided to walk up to my L&D room and I had to stop a couple of times because of the contractions but I still didn't really think about it. I figured given past experience I would be at the hospital for at least 10 hours!

In the L&D room, everyone was taking turns coming in and my contractions were getting progressively more painful. All of a sudden I was in big time pain and opted for the epideral as quickly as possible :) I had to wait 20 minutes because I had to get the IV fluids first. Boop had been in the room and the girls never made it in before I made my mom take him out because I was in sooooo much pain - unbelievable pain, pain I was not ready for. It had come on sooo fast and soooo hard and sooooo strong. While I was waiting for the epideral I begged for an intravenous drug to help me through the pain until they could hook me up with the epideral. Everyone was out of the room except hubby. I was literally writhing in my bed from the pain. (They thought the baby still might be sunnyside up) I tried to focus through it but it was incredible. A minute later I had this very overwhelming desire to push. I screamed "I need to push." There was no one there except hubby - no nurse, no midwife - just hubby, who still thinks daddy's should be in the waiting room smoking cigars!!

I am pushing and he ran out to get the nurse. I had dilated from 5cm to 10cm in 20 minutes. She runs in and starts suiting up and I am screaming where are my drugs. The nurse informs me "You are too late for that." "What?!?!" I scream as I am bearing down with just the nurse in front of me. She yells to hubby "Run out in the hall and get all the nurses." She is gloving up and I ask her "What are you doing?!?!" "And she informs me she is delivering a baby." I say "What, no, I didn't get my drugs. Where's Jane (the midwife)?" Nurse yells to hubby "Go out and tell them to get Jane!" Oh my! I am fixing to deliver my baby with a nurse and my hubby. I freaked out (actually I had been freaking out the entire time!!) I started to push even more and Jane finally got there and suited up. I begged, I pushed, I screamed, I panicked, I pushed, I pleaded, I cried, I screamed, I threatened, I pushed, I made idle threats and crazy promises. I wanted to quit but I couldn't my body literally wouldn't let me. I wanted to give up but my body would take over. Everyone was cheering for me and encouraging me - easy for them to do. I said all kinds of crazy things. When I was suppose to be holding my breath and pushing I was screaming "please pray", "pray", "pray." Jane finally told me "No screaming, just breath and push." I complied. It was about 40 minutes until I finally was able to calm down and focus and get the hang of the pushing. I could tell the difference. I was in the zone. 5-10 minutes later baby C was born!!!

Now all this time we were all convinced it was a boy. I really just assumed. I can't tell you why. So as the baby was coming out, the midwife turned the baby up so that we could all see at once what it was. "It's a girl . . . . " we all said in unison. Like a whole room of disbelief - not mad, sad, bad just shocked. Then all at once it was utter joy!!! A BABY GIRL - a beautiful, healthy baby girl -Elizabeth Ann, 7lbs 8oz, 19 1/2 inches.

Well, today is Monday and we have been home for almost 24 hours. So far so good . . .